Neuroelectrodynamics
IN electrophysiology, neuroelectrodynamics or NED is the study of the dynamics and interaction of electrical charges in the brain. Aur D., Jog, MS., 2010 Neuroelectrodynamics: Understanding the brain language, IOS Press, 2010, http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/978-1-60750-473-3-i The word neuroelectrodynamics is derived from "neuro", meaning neurons, "electro", for electric field, and "dynamics", meaning movement. The main idea of NED is that, under the influence of electric fields, charges that interact perform computations and are capable of reading, writing, and storing information in their spatial distribution at molecular level within active neurons.Craddock T. J. A, Tuszynski J.A, Hameroff S. 2012 Cytoskeletal Signaling: Is Memory Encoded in Microtubule Lattices by CaMKII Phosphorylation? PLoS Comput Biol, Vol. 8, No. 3. http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002421 Physical laws, from classical mechanics and thermodynamics to quantum theory, can, according to this theory, be applied to generate a consistent mathematical model of brain computation. NED claims that temporal observables associated with neural coding (temporal coding, spike timing occurrence, spike-timing-dependent plasticity, and interspike interval) are epiphenomena determined by the dynamics and interaction of electric charges modulated by molecular changes in neurotransmitters levels, regulatory mechanisms of gene expression from DNA to protein synthesis. NED highlights a specific form of computation-by-interaction which is proposed to be a general physical model of computation extensively present in nature. Aur, D., Jog, M., and Poznanski, R.R. (2011) Computing by Physical Interaction in Neurons. J. Integrative Neurosicence 10, 413–422 Aur D., From Neuroelectrodynamics to Thinking Machines, DOI: 10.1007/s12559-011-9106-3, Cognitive Computation, 2011, Volume 4, Number 1 (2012), 4–12, http://www.springerlink.com/content/x1l7388475323758/ A spontaneous generation of action potentials and synaptic activities is needed to maintain physical interaction. During these events, the required information is exchanged between molecular structures (proteins), which store fragments of information, Woolf, N.J., Priel, A. & Tuszynski, J.A. (2009) Nanoneuroscience: Structural and Functional Roles of the Neuronal Cytoskeleton in Health and Disease. New York: Springer-Verlag and the generated electric flux, which carries and integrates meaningful information in the brain. C.A. Anastassiou, R. Perin, H. Markram, C. Koch Ephaptic coupling of cortical neurons Nat Neurosci, 14 (2) (2011), p. 217 http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v14/n2/full/nn.2727.html F. Fröhlich, D.A. McCormick , Endogenous electric fields may guide neocortical network activity, Neuron, 67 (1) (2010), pp. 129–143 Aur D, A Comparative Analysis of Integrating Visual Information in Local Neuronal Ensembles, Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2012 Volume 207, Issue 1, 30 2012, Pages 23–30, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165027012001021 History Early work started with the electrophysiological observation that action potentials generated by the same neuron are not all alike; they display changes in electrical patterns, not just temporal variability.Sasaki, T., Matsuki, N., Ikegaya, Y. 2011 Action-potential modulation during axonal conduction Science 331 (6017), pp. 599–601 Every recorded action potential can be characterized by a new measure, spike directivity, that describes electrical activity in a biological neuron. Aur D., Connolly C.I., and Jog M.S., 2005 Computing spike directivity with tetrodes. J. Neurosci. Vol. 149, Issue 1, pp. 57–63, http://dx.doi.org./10.1016/j.jneumeth.2005.05.006 Significant changes in spike directivity are correlated with changes in behavior. Aur D., Jog, M.S., 2007 Reading the Neural Code: What do Spikes Mean for Behavior? Nature Precedings, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2007.61.1 Since information is carried by action potentials, then their dynamics and interaction are proposed to give rise to complex computational processes in the brain. Aur D., Connolly C.I. and Jog M.S., 2006 Computing Information in Neuronal Spikes, Neural Processing Letters, 23:183–199 See also *Neural coding References Category:Computational neuroscience Category:Neural coding Category:Electrophysiology Category:Cellular neuroscience